High School

Serena makes 2 \(\frac{1}{4}\) cups of popcorn using 1 \(\frac{1}{2}\) tablespoons of kernels. How many tablespoons of kernels does she use per cup of popcorn?

Answer :

Answer:

2/3 tbsp of kernels

Step-by-step explanation:

Solving the Problem

We can set up a ratio of popcorn to kernels.

[tex]\rm \dfrac{2.25c~popcorn}{1.5tbsp~kernels}[/tex]

This tells us how the two quantities relate to each other and by how much each has relative to the other (1.5 tbsp kernels are used to make 2.25 cups of popcorn).

We want to to know how much kernels is used to make per cup (1 cup). We can equate this ratio to another ratio of 1 cup of popcorn to x tbsp of kernels, and solve for x.

[tex]\rm \dfrac{2.25c~popcorn}{1.5tbsp~kernels} = \rm \dfrac{1c~popcorn}{x~tbsp~kernels}[/tex]

[tex]2.25x = 1.5[/tex]

[tex]x = 0.6667 \approx \dfrac{2}{3}[/tex]

So, it takes 2/3 tbsp of kernels to make 1 cup of popcorn.